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"Or let my lamp at midnight hour Be seen in some high lonely tower, Where I may oft outwatch the Bear, Or thrice-great Hermes, and unsphere The spirit of Plato." Milton. Il Penseroso.
He must consider Holland of the seventeenth century, and England: the Platonists of Cambridge and Amsterdam; must think of Van Helmont; and of a Vaughan who 'saw eternity the other night'; of a Traherne, who should never enjoy the world aright without some illumination from his star; of a young Milton, penseroso, out watching the Bear in some high lonely tower with thrice-great Hermes, who should unsphere his spirit,
The scribes who studied and copied these books were also specially honoured, for it was believed that the spirit of Thoth, the twice-great and thrice-great god, dwelt in them. The profession of the scribe was considered to be most honourable, and its rewards were great, for no rank and no dignity were too high for the educated scribe.
He invites comparison not only with the Saviour of the Gospels, but also with figures that appear in the myths of the mystery cults: with Horos, the son of Isis, with Hermes the Thrice-Great, with the "Eagle" or "Father" whose title represented the highest grade of the Mithriaca.
And we must leave Rupert to his career of romantic daring, to be made President of Wales and Generalissimo of the army, to rescue with unequalled energy Newark and York and the besieged heroine of Lathom House, to fight through Newbury and Marston Moor and Naseby, and many a lesser field, to surrender Bristol and be acquitted by court-martial, but hopelessly condemned by the King; then to leave the kingdom, refusing a passport, and fighting his perilous way to the seaside; then to wander over the world for years, astonishing Dutchmen by his seamanship, Austrians by his soldiership, Spaniards and Portuguese by his buccaneering powers, and Frenchmen by his gold and diamonds and birds and monkeys and "richly-liveried Blackamoors"; then to reorganize the navy of England, exchanging characters with his fellow-commander, Monk, whom the ocean makes rash, as it makes Rupert prudent; leave him to use nobly his declining years, in studious toils in Windsor Castle, the fulfilment of Milton's dream, outwatching the Bear with thrice-great Hermes, surrounded by strange old arms and instruments, and maps of voyages, and plans of battles, and the abstruse library which the "Harleian Miscellany" still records; leave him to hunt and play at tennis, serve in the Hudson's Bay Company and the Board of Trade; leave him to experiment in alchemy and astrology, in hydraulics, metallurgy, gunpowder, perspective, quadrants, mezzotint, fish-hooks, and revolvers; leave him to look from his solitary turret over hills and fields, now peaceful, but each the scene of some wild and warlike memory for him; leave him to die a calm and honored death at sixty-three, outliving every companion of his early days.
"Or let my lamp at midnight hour Be seen in some high lonely tower, Where I may oft outwatch the Bear, Or thrice-great Hermes, and unsphere The spirit of Plato." Milton. Il Penseroso.
Years after, the people of Ancient Greece also made him one of their many gods calling him "Hermes, the god of Wisdom." The Egyptians revered his memory for many centuries-yes, tens of centuries calling him "the Scribe of the Gods," and bestowing upon him, distinctively, his ancient title, "Trismegistus," which means "the thrice-great"; "the great-great"; "the greatest-great"; etc.
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